Electrical regulator



March 26, 1935. A. A. EMMERLING 1,996,041

ELECTRICAL REGULATOR Filed July 29, 1932 I Figl Fig.2.

mTENTIAL Inventor" 1 Anson Afmmerlin g,

His Attorney.

Patented Mar. 26 1935 I I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELECTRICAL REGULATOR Anson A. Emmerling, Albany, N. Y., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York I Application July 29, 1932, Serial No. 625,946

4 Claims. (01. 171-119) My invention relates to electrical regulators and The operation of my invention is as follows: more particularly to static automatic regulators The non-linear bridge circuit is so adjusted that employing non-linear bridge circuits and satuwhen the voltage of circuit 1 is normal the elecrable core reactors. trical impedance, or resistance, of arms 8 will 8 Static type regulators, that is to say, regulators be greater than the electrical impedance, or re- 5 which have no moving parts, which include a sistance, of arms 7 of the bridge. Consequently, non-linear Wheatstone bridge circuit as adevice an unbalance current will be produced by the sensitive to a condition to be regulated and which bridge and this unbalance current will be rectialso include a saturable core reactor under the fied by rectifier and will pass through the 7 10 control of the bridge circuit, are known in the direct current saturating winding 9 of the re- 10 art. In accordance with my invention I provide actor, causing the alternating current winding of an extremely simple regulator of this type in the reactor to have a predetermined reactance. Which the unbalanced current produced by the The total voltage of circuit 1 will divide between bridge is used to control directly the saturation the alternating Current Winding 5 0 t e re of the saturable reactor. and the primary winding 4 of the booster trans- 16 An object of my invention is to provide anew former in direct proportion to their relative reand improved electrical regulator. actances. Consequently, a predetermined voltage A further object of my invention is to provide boost will be produced in circuit 1 in proportion an extremely simple and reliable electrical regut0 the vo across the p y Winding l0 lator. It will be assumed that non-linear elements 8 20 My invention will be better understood from the of the brid ar el nts whose res s an d following description taken in connection with creases with increases in voltage app therethe accompanying drawing and its scope will be to. In Fig. 2 is S w t Current-Potential pointed out in the appended claims. curve of such elements as compared with the In the drawing, Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic illussame curve for linear elements. Thus the straight 25 tration 'of an embodiment of my invention and line 7' illustra e t Curr -potential Curve 01 Fig. 2 is a set of curves for explaining the opera- 2. linear resistance element, while curve 8' illustion of the bridge circuit. trates the same curve for an element whose im- Referring now to Fig. l of the accompanying pedance, or resistance, decreases with increases :0 drawing, I have shown an alternating current cirof pp Voltage- AS Shown by cu v 8' h 0111- 80 cuit 1, whose voltage is to be regulated. For'this rent increases relatively more rapidly than the purpose I provide a booster traneformer 2 havvolta e. ing a series, or secondary, winding in circuit 1 Assume that the voltage of circuit 1 increases and a shunt, or primary, winding 4. Primary slightly. This will tend to reduce the resistance,

'35 winding 4 is connected across circuit 1 through or impedance, of arms 8 and consequently the unthe alternating current winding 5 of a saturable balance current produced by the bridge will be core reactor 6. Connected to be responsive to the decreased. This will cause a decrease in the curvoltage in circuit 1 is a non-linear Wheatstone rent through the direct current winding 9 with bridge circuit comprising linear impedance elethe result that the ohmic reactance of the alterments '7 and non-linear impedance elements 8 nating current winding 5 of the reactor will in 40 connected to form the four arms of a Wheatstone crease. Consequently a greater proportion of bridge. Electrically opposite, or non-adjacent, the total circuit voltage will be consumed across terminals of this bridge are connected across cirthe alternating current winding 5 and a lesser cuit 1 and the other terminals of the bridge are proportion will be available for producing a voltconnected to the direct current saturating windage boost in the booster transformer 2. Conse- 45 ing 9 of reactor 6 through a suitable rectifier l0. quently the voltage boost will be reduced and the Non-linear elements 8 may be of any well voltage of circuit 1 restored substantially to known type such as resistances having relatively normal. high temperature coefiicients of resistance or they If the voltage of circuit 2 falls below normal may be composed of substantially instantaneously the resistance, or impedance, of arms 8 increases, 50 acting voltage dependent resistance material such thereby causing the unbalance current produced as is disclosed and claimed in Patent No. 1,822,742, by the bridge to be increased. This will cause a granted September 8, 1931, upon an application of greater current to flow through the direct cur- K. B. McEachron, and assigned to the assignee rent winding of the reactor and consequently the of the present application. 4 reactance of the alternating current winding for 55 the reactor will be decreased and the voltage across the primary winding of the booster transformer will increase. This will increase the voltage boost produced by the booster transformer and will tend to restore the voltage of circuit 1 substantially to normal.

From the above description it will be seen that the bridge circuit produces an unbalance current which varies inversely with variations in the' voltage of circuit 1 from a normal value.

Although I have illustrated and described my invention in connection with the automatic regu-' lation of voltage, it will of course be obvious to those skilled in the art that the bridge circuit may be made responsive to any one of a large number of conditions, such as current, frequency,

etc., without departing from my invention.

While I have shown and described a particular embodiment of my invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from .my invention, and I, therefore, aim in the appended claims to cover all such changes and 2. In combination, an electric circuit, a nonlinear bridge connected to be responsive to the voltage of said circuit and arranged to produce an unbalance current which varies with variations of the voltage of said circuit from a normal value, means including a saturable core reactor for varying the voltage of said circuit, said reactor havinga saturating winding which is connected to be traversed by the unbalance current of said bridge.

3. In combination, an alternating current circuit, means including asaturable core reactor for varying the voltage of said circuit, a. non-linear bridge circuit connected to be responsive to the voltage of said circuit and arranged to produce an unbalance current which increases with decreases in voltage of said circuit and which de creases with increases in voltage of said circuit, means for rectifying said unbalance current, and means for causing said rectified unbalance current to saturate said reactor.

4. In combination, an alternating current circuit, a booster transformer connected to said circuit, a saturable core reactor for controlling the voltage boost of said transformer, a saturating Winding on said reactor, a non-linear bridge connected across said circuit, 'said bridge being arranged to produce an unbalance current which varies inversely with variations from a normal value of the voltage of said circuit, means for rectifying said unbalance current, and means for causing said rectified unbalance current to pass through said saturating winding.

ANSON A. EIVIIVIERLING. 

